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Just had some of our new neighbour Rose's fish and chips (or fush & chups, since we're Kiwi). Very tasty they were too, and a nice friendly bunch behind the counter.

A little late to the party on this conversation but in reply to rahrahrah, we (Hop Burns & Black) hedge our bets and call our location Peckham Rye/East Dulwich because we ain't one thing, ain't the other - we're pretty much equidistant from both ED and PR stations so don't want to put anyone off paying us a visit. Interestingly enough, Time Out classes us as Peckham as it goes with the theory that our side of ED Rd has always been known as Peckham, despite our SE22 postcode!

Now dozens of them blocking the road outside the petrol station on East Dulwich Road, doing burnouts etc. Actually pretty frightening.

Help-Ma-Boab Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Did he not invent the 99 cone by sticking a Blake > in it? > Bravo, sir.

FYI the gelato place on East Dulwich Road is finally open - it's called Fabulous Ice Fires. Enjoyed a three-flavour tub just now on this glorious afternoon.

Wow, cheers everyone :) @clockworkorange, we do a 10% discount on cases and are about to launch our loyalty scheme very soon - great minds think alike...

Thanks Jah Lush, that's really lovely to hear. We were surprised and delighted by the article, and especially chuffed that the League of Gentlemen allusion made it past the sub-editors... Say hi next time you're in!

There's a similar scam being pulled on businesses around Peckham & East Dulwich - a man claims to be raising money for MacMillan Cancer Support and organising some sort of under-the-stars sleep-out that firefighters are doing on the Rye (though no one has ever seen any evidence of these sleep-outs, let alone any firefighters)... He too has a list of signatures that he offers as 'proof' of how many other businesses are supporting, as well as Macmillan pamphlets. He's tried us a couple of times now but hasn't been back since we gave him short shrift.

The Kinsale one is looking fantastic - we're delighted to have it on the street and I know the owners are chuffed. Cheers Ingrid for helping make this happen.

The Brockley Cross Business Centre has a few like-minded foodie businesses in it, such as Blackwoods Cheese and Original Fry-Up Material. You could also try where Clarkshaws Brewing used to be in Tyrrell Road - some great food businesses there too...

Looking forward to it - should be a nice addition to our parade. With the kids' playground 20 ft away, I imagine there'll be a steady stream of customers too. Wish them the best of luck.

Cheers Jeremy - a perfect compromise. :) @Rolo - thanks so much. We battled with some issues on one of the turntables so I'm glad that didn't affect your enjoyment. Not sure when/if we're back again - depends if Jonny will let us!

Thanks so much, Otta! And of course my extremely long reply wasn't solely directed to you, I just thought it might be of interest to the various folk who have commented above. And BTW we're taking over the turntables at the Gowlett tonight so if anyone feels like chatting further, we'd be happy to continue extolling the joys of beer and independent retail over a drink!

Apologies in advance for the long post! Otta, we sell Jaipur for ?3.95 - a price we recognise is higher than a supermarket but also a price on which a very reasonable margin is applied (one that a quick Google will show is substantially less than the standard margin on beer used by most independent bottle shops). We can count the number of brands we sell that are sold by supermarkets on one hand - as above, we sell these only because our customers ask for them (and indeed, Jaipur is one of our most popular products). However we don?t believe we should have to take a total bath on them just because supermarkets use these as loss-leaders. (I?d recommend reading Pete Brown?s book A Man Walks Into A Pub for a great explanation on how supermarkets use loss-leading discounts on alcohol to encourage shoppers into their store, usually locating the booze at the back of the store so that shoppers have to walk past other, non-heavily discounted products to get there...) We?re a small, new independent store so we don?t yet have the clout to demand heavy discounts from our trade suppliers, but we?re always talking with them to see what can be done. (And unlike our supermarket friends, when we start turning a profit, you can bet we?ll be putting it right back into the community where we live and work rather than funnelling it to offshore bank accounts.) A final point: when you come to an independent retailer, you?ll get knowledge and service you'd be hard pressed to find in a supermarket. We?ll tell you what beer will go with the meal you?re planning, what you might like to try next if you like a certain beer, where the beer came from, even what music the brewers like to listen to in the brewhouse... We have enormous passion for what we sell and we hope this always comes across. And if you?d rather get your Jaipur from Waitrose, that?s absolutely fine - we have 290 other beers you won?t find in a supermarket that you might like to try instead. :)

Hi Jeremy and Seabag, it's Jen here from HB&B. I'd be interested to know which beers you're referring to - we're really proud of our reasonable margins and the reputation we've gained from honest pricing. As an independent retailer, We can't compete with supermarkets and never will be able to when they're able to retail beers for the same prices as it costs us to buy them from our suppliers. An example would be Thornbridge's Jaipur, which we buy at wholesale for ?2.10 but which retails in Waitrose for ?2.39. We try to avoid stocking the same beers as supermarkets for this very reason, but do make an exception for products such as Thornbridge and Brewdog's Punk IPA, which our customers ask for and which are very popular products. I hope this helps.

What a lovely looking cat, I'm so sorry you've had a sad end to your search, MajorTed. We've lost two cats to the road so know what you're going through. Thanks Kristen for taking the time to look after him and provide a bit of comfort.

It's going to be a gelateria and gallery space, apparently - likely to open Feb sometime.

Hi Dodo1, thank you so much for the kind words. The simple explanation is that beer and hot sauce are two of our favourite things. Completely unscientific research also suggests that a lot of people who love exploring the wonderful world of beer also enjoy sublimely/ridiculously hot sauces, so we thought we'd put it to the test. We can confirm this hypothesis does appear to be borne out from what we've observed over the past two weeks. (Beer and hot sauce also go really well together.)

Hello - it's Jen from Hop Burns & Black here. We just wanted to say thanks so much to just_browsing (and indeed all of the other wonderful folk who have made our first week and a half of trading such a joy). Anyone who has started a business or undertaken a major project will know what a crazy, stressful time it can be - the reward is all in the great people you meet, and receiving lovely feedback such as this is a fantastic bonus. It's made our night. :)

@Nashoi - good call on the Bermondsey beer mile, perfect way to spend a Saturday - loads of great breweries within just a short stretch. Recommend also checking out The Bottle Shop on Druid St which has a fantastic range of local and international beers (bottled and on draught), plus a regular Weird Beard residency. (Their Mariana Trench is a thing of great beauty.) @Titch and @Rahrahrah - you have great taste. BBNo is one of our favourite local breweries and we're really looking forward to stocking Rogue in our US section. Working through their list this week so will definitely ensure Amber makes the cut for you. Their stouts rock too... Re records - with the focus on booze we're a little constrained for space so are sadly limited to just 1-2 record bins so we've had to go for quality over quantity. Expect lots of vintage funk, disco, soul, post-punk and a bit of classic rock and pop too. Also a great little 7" section if you're partial to the Gowlett's Lucky 7s night on a Thursday... PS - you guys rock! Thanks for all the interest - it's really heartening :)

Hi David - interesting you mention Titanic as we are waiting on a care pack of samples to arrive today from one of our distributors and I believe the Stout is among them. I shall report back! It is definitely the season for malt madness - rest assured we'll have plenty in the darker shades from here in the UK and around the world (we have some incredible porters landing shortly from New Zealand as well as the US). Perfect stout weather today too - now I'm getting a thirst on. @seabag - I promise this will be the last plug I do here or I may risk being banned... ;) We'll be at 38 East Dulwich Rd from mid-November.

Great minds, Jeremy! We have a special section dedicated solely to celebrating the beers of the great South East - the Bricks, the Brockleys, the Bear Hugs, the Clarkshaws and more (very exciting stuff happening a bit further afield in the likes of Bermondsey and Gipsy Hill too, and new breweries seem to be popping up on a near-daily basis). And in further proof of that great minds thing, we have all sorts of fun plans for Xmas packs... stay tuned. :)

Hi Titch Juicy, certainly no intention to do any hijacking but I've been following this conversation for a while as it seems to be the best discussion of craft beer currently on the EDF so thought our news may be of interest, particularly as many different craft beer outlets in the area are mentioned. It's really exciting how much is out there - so much great beer to be enjoyed.